NEW 2020 DATA
Abortion legislation | Practical conditions | Abortion statistics
Characteristics of women having induced abortion | Fertility and contraception data | Country-specific characteristics
1952: abortion is allowed (Yugoslavia)
1974: Art. 191 dated 21 February
1978: new Law dated 21 April
2017 (Croatia, ex Yugoslav Republic): the Constitutional Court confirmed the women′s right for abortion on request. The Court obliged the government to propose the new Law in the next 2 years.
Update 2019 (December) According to the media, no action regarding the new law has been started yet.
Specific conditions due to COVID-19
- Attitude of doctors towards abortion is getting more severe and abortions are getting more expensive
- Abortion is not explicitly labelled as essential

Legal conditions
- Written consent by the woman
- Mandatory pre-abortion laboratory tests and ultrasound examination.
Specific conditions for minors
- Specific legal counselling
- Parents (or guardians) have to sign for minors under 18.
Abortion legislation | Practical conditions | Abortion statistics | Characteristics of women having induced abortion
Fertility and contraception data | Country-specific characteristics
Medical abortion not regulated by the Law dated 21 April 1978, or by any other Law/Decree in Croatia.
The slides presented are freely accessible. They may be used, copied, displayed or distributed provided that their source is given
SOURCES
COVID measures taken from the article by Bojovic N, Stanisljevic J, Giunti G. The impact of COVID-19 on abortion access: Insights from the European Union and the United Kingdom.
Health Policy. 2021 Jul;125(7):841-858.United Nations publication (http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/abortion/profiles.htm)
Law dated 21 April 1978
Croatian Institute of Public Health, Central Bureau of Statistics (https://www.hzjz.hr/periodicne-publikacije/hrvatski-zdravstveno-statisticki-ljetopis-za-2019-tablicni-podaci/)
Croatian Institute of Public Health, Central Bureau of Statistics (https://www.hzjz.hr/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Bilten_POBACAJI_2017.pdf)
CIA (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2256.html)
https://www.hzjz.hr/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Ljetopis_Yerabook_2019.pdf
https://www.hzjz.hr/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Bilten_POBACAJI_2020.pdf
We thank Dr. Vesna STEPANIC for her help in data collection.
If you have additional data or if you would like to comment some information, please contact info@exelgyn.com.
Page updated in January 2022